Bad air could disrupt Beijing Olympic Games: IOC Chief

BEIJING—International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge said Thursday Beijing was running out of time to tackle bad air quality that could disrupt next year’s Games.
Speaking on the same day that a UN report praised the Chinese capital for its recent “remarkable” record on improving the environment, Rogge said some Olympic events may have to be put off because of poor air quality. Rogge, addressing a major environmental forum here, said Beijing could still fall short of providing the clean air guarantee required for athletes to compete on some days, especially in endurance events.
“Despite all these efforts, time may be running out, and the conditions required for the athletes competing in endurance disciplines might not be met 100 percent on a given day,” he said.
“For this reason, we may have to reschedule some events so that the health of athletes is scrupulously protected.” Beijing is often shrouded in a thick industrial haze and air pollution has frequently been cited as a major threat to the successful hosting of the August 8-24 Games. Earlier, Hein Verbruggen, a top International Olympic Committee (IOC) official, said that pollution could put back some events but described such delays as “normal, standard procedure” that would not detract from the success of the Games. “There is nothing, and I repeat nothing, that is of any risk or danger that we see for the organisation of next year’s Games,” he stressed.
Verbruggen, chairman of the Coordination Commission of the IOC, which is responsible for helping Beijing prepare for the Olympics, was speaking at a press conference at the close of three days of talks between his commission and the Beijing Olympic organising committee (BOCOG).
Earlier Thursday the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) congratulated Beijing on a 12-billion-dollar clean-up underway since it won the right to host the Games in 2001. Beijing had pledged to stage a “green” Olympics and had already achieved most of its environmental goals, the UNEP said in a report.
But the report said that poor air quality would not be resolved in time for the Games. “Improvements in air quality cannot be achieved in a short period of time,” said Eric Falt, the UNEP’s sport and environment programme director. “Air quality, therefore, remains a legitimate concern for the competitors and the observers, and for the citizens of Beijing themselves.”
The UNEP report praised Beijing for steps already taken to improve air quality, including moving major polluting industries out of the city, replacing coal-fired energy with cleaner fuels such as gas and raising vehicle emission standards. Rogge also praised the Chinese capital for the steps it had already taken in an address at the opening of the three-day world congress on sport and the environment here, organised by the IOC, the UNEP and BOCOG.
Chinese officials said they were confident that during the short period of the Olympic Games, measures could be taken to guarantee good air quality.
BOCOG vice president Jiang Xiaoyu said Beijing cut key air pollutants by half when it banned more than one million cars from the streets for four days in August this year and would adopt a similar scheme during the Olympics Other plans included shutting down construction sites and closing or reducing operations of polluting industries in the Beijing area.
“For the short period of the Games, air quality will be fine. Our challenge is curbing pollution over the long term,” said Sarah Liao, Hong Kong’s former environment minister, who is an adviser to the Beijing Olympic organising committee.—Agencies